Church in the World

Pope accuses Bible scholars of denial of Christ’s divinity

Pope Benedict XVI this week criticised "mainstream" biblical scholarship in Germany for "reducing everything to the human" and denying the divine, including the Resurrection of Christ and the institution of the Eucharist.

The Pope made his comments on Tuesday at the Vatican when he intervened for the first time at the 5-26 October Bishops' Synod on the Word of God.

His reference to the German biblical scholars was meant to illustrate the pitfalls of the historical-critical method of interpreting Scripture when it is divorced from a "hermeneutic of faith". Speaking extemporaneously in Italian before the more than 300 Synod participants, the Pope said the historical-critical method needed to be "completed" by theology.

"If the hermeneutic of faith disappears, its place will be taken by a positivist or secularist hermeneutic, according to which the divine does not appear in history," he added.

Referring to the Second Vatican Council document on revelation, Dei Verbum, Pope Benedict said Scripture had to be the "soul of theology" and theology should be the mode of interpreting Scripture in the Church. The Pope, who is a systematic theologian with a keen interest in the Bible, said any dualism between Scripture and theology had to be overcome since they are two dimensions of the same reality.

The Pope then urged the Synod Fathers to include two items in their final list of proposals to him: first, to insist that the historical-critical method be balanced by a "hermeneutic of faith"; and, second, that Catholic scripture scholars be educated in this principle.

Fr Thomas Rosica, the official English-language attaché at the synod, said exegesis was one of several themes that the bishops had regularly raised in their five-minute talks, or "interventions", in the first two weeks. Other major topics that emerged included the development and articulation of lectio divina; concern for the availability and distribution of Bibles in different languages; the formation of people and professors in scripture studies; an acute need for "revivifying homilies"; the establishment of Bible schools and of new institutes for translations; and a need to rediscover Dei Verbum.

One of a number of bishops to express concern on the quality of preaching, Bishop Gerald Kicanas of Tucson, called for 2009 to be declared a "Year of Preaching". He suggested that priests, deacons and bishops should study together how to improve their preaching and involve the laity. "What if, in that year of preaching, there would be a thorough exploration of the catechetical potential of the Sunday homily?" he asked.